In a bid to scale up environmental conservation efforts across rural Nashik, the Maratha Vidya Prasarak (MVP) Samaj’s College of Social Work has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Mumbai-based Raah Foundation to launch a project on collective forest rights (CFR) management in 185 villages across 11 talukas of the district.
The collaboration, formalised in the presence of MVP’s general secretary Nitin Thakare, Education Officer Nitin Jadhav, principal Vilas Deshmukh, and Raah Foundation vice president Sharyu Kamat, marks a significant step towards decentralised ecological governance and participatory afforestation in the region.
Forest rights, village by village
Under the agreement, the two institutions will work jointly to form Collective Forest Rights Management Committees in each of the 185 villages. These bodies, backed by local gram sabhas, will lead the development of comprehensive environmental plans tailored to their forest-dependent communities.
To facilitate this effort, students from the College of Social Work will be deployed to the identified villages. Their role includes raising awareness of the CFR Act, collecting geographical and environmental data, conducting field-level surveys on forest products and digitally uploading the findings via a mobile application. These 40-page submissions will help the government create detailed maps and ecological profiles of the community forest lands, enabling better planning and targeted interventions.
Local governing bodies—village sarpanches, gram sevaks, committee chairpersons and other officials—will spearhead activities such as tree plantation drives. The project also envisages close coordination with line departments to draft village-specific ecological development plans.
Ambitions to scale: 800 villages next
Speaking at the event, Thakare outlined MVP's long-term ambition. “We are beginning this important work in 185 villages, but we are confident of expanding it to 800 with the support of the District Collector and continued collaboration with the Raah Foundation,” he said.
